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Context

Knowledge is contextual . . . By “context” we mean the sum of cognitive
elements conditioning the acquisition, validity or application of any item of
human knowledge. Knowledge is an organization or integration of interconnected
elements, each relevant to the others . . . Knowledge is not a mosaic of
independent pieces each of which stands apart from the rest . . . .

In regard to any concept, idea, proposal, theory, or item of knowledge, never
forget or ignore the context on which it depends and which conditions its
validity and use.

Concepts are not and cannot be formed in a vacuum; they are formed in a
context; the process of conceptualization consists of observing the differences
and similarities of the existents within the field of one’s awareness (and
organizing them into concepts accordingly). From a child’s grasp of the
simplest concept integrating a group of perceptually given concretes, to a
scientist’s grasp of the most complex abstractions integrating long conceptual
chains—all conceptualization is a contextual process; the context is the
entire field of a mind’s awareness or knowledge at any level of its cognitive
development.

This does not mean that conceptualization is a subjective process or that the
content of concepts depends on an individual’s subjective (i.e., arbitrary)
choice. The only issue open to an individual’s choice in this matter is how
much knowledge he will seek to acquire and, consequently, what conceptual
complexity he will be able to reach. But so long as and to the extent that his
mind deals with concepts (as distinguished from memorized sounds and floating
abstractions), the content of his concepts is determined and dictated by the
cognitive content of his mind, i.e., by his grasp of the facts of reality. If
his grasp is non-contradictory, then even if the scope of his knowledge is
modest and the content of his concepts is primitive, it will not contradict
the content of the same concepts in the mind of the most advanced scientists.

The same is true of definitions. All definitions are contextual, and a
primitive definition does not contradict a more advanced one: the latter
merely expands the former.